A/N: Thank you as always to Guest, Sharpe, Tertius711, Black Dragon Master, Raider, Lightbrightfury, FireLordAziz, and devilfiredog18 for reviewing!

Thanks also to Wu Chan and Zunok for adding to the review count and providing entertainment to the rest of us. It's really very amusing to see you raging on about the same old complaints, in almost the same words as previous Korrasami trolls...hmm...you couldn't POSSIBLY be the same person adding multiple anonymous reviews to 'agree' with each other, could you?

Enjoy the chapter!

55. You'll remember me when the west wind moves

The fire glows merrily as Mai Lee chucks wood on it.

"There we go," she says with satisfaction, straightening from her crouch.

Iroh — who has been watching his sister start the fire for the last fifteen minutes — hums with approval. "It looks good, Mai."

Bolin looks puzzled, glancing between Iroh, Zuko, and — tentatively — Izumi. "Why didn't one of you just firebend it?"

All three firebenders (okay, two firebenders and one maybe firebender) shake their heads at once, while Mai Lee hisses a vehement, "No."

But it's Lord Kairo, sitting on a log next to his wife (and spirits, it is bizarre to see the Fire Lord and Fire Consort sitting primly on a log) who explains, "The campfire is always lit by hand, not bending."

"What's the significance of lighting it by hand?" he queries from his spot next to Korra on the mat.

"Grandmother Mai started our family's spring campfire tradition," Mai Lee replies. She kicks off her shoes and sinks her toes into the beach sand, looking over at Zuko. "And Grandfather should really be the one telling this story."

Zuko chuckles as he leans against the backrest of the chair Iroh had brought out for him. "There really isn't much to tell," he assures the young adults. "It was about a year after our wedding, close to our first anniversary — that had been a particularly turbulent year for the Fire Nation, which meant it was a turbulent year for me. Mai wanted to do something to help me relax — Agni knows I needed it, no matter how much I insisted otherwise — so she lured me out one night to this beach and we spent the night roasting marshmallows over the campfire — which she had made, I might add."

"It became an annual tradition," Izumi puts in with a fond glance at her father. "Sometime in early spring every year, our family would gather here for the campfire. Since Mother was the one who started the original fire, we decided we'd never use bending for it." She smirks. "She took great pride in being able to do something Father could not."

"Wait — you can't start a fire by hand?" Asami asks in surprise.

Zuko shrugs. "Most firebenders can't," he admits. "It seems…ah, a little redundant." He grins sheepishly.

"I have to say I'm a little surprised Lady Mai knew how to make a fire from scratch," Korra comments offhandedly.

"She didn't at first," Zuko confides. "Suki taught her how to do it."

"Ooh ooh ooh — can we get old Team Avatar stories?" Bolin exclaims. "Please?"

Korra and Asami (all right, him too) are immediately interested, turning hopeful eyes to Zuko, who arches an amused eyebrow.

"You'll have to be more specific. There are lots of old Team Avatar stories. What do you want to know?"

"Anything!" Bolin enthuses. "Like, how did you decide to go from hunting Aang to helping him? What about the break-in at Boiling Rock? That must have been intense. Oh, and the Agni Kai with Azula during Sozin's Comet? And did you and Ozai really have a lightning duel on the Day of Black Sun?"

Zuko chuckles, and obligingly begins addressing Bolin's excited questions the best he can. As is the old man's wont, he soon deviates from merely answering questions and moves into telling anecdotes as and when they occur to him. He, Bolin, Korra, and Asami listen intently; Iroh and Mai Lee, who must have heard all of this already, nevertheless also pay rapt attention to their grandfather's words.

Somewhere during Zuko's tale of how he and Earth King Kuei had almost gone to war over Harmonic Restoration (history which he already knows intimately, thanks to Mom), Izumi requests a private word with him. They retreat a little from the fire, out of earshot of the rest of the group.

"I understand I have you to thank for Iroh's plan," Izumi states without preamble.

"Er…yeah," he admits. "I mean, I just suggested it because I thought it could be a good compromise — Iroh was the one who —"

"I'm not annoyed, Mako." Izumi's tone holds a hint of amusement. "It's not what I would have preferred, but I'm not unhappy with the arrangement. It quite effectively balances what Iroh needs to do in the Fire Nation with what he still wants to do in the United Forces."

He pauses, remembering the one wish Izumi had that is not fulfilled by this compromise. "Are you okay with him still being in the Forces?"

Izumi sighs. "I will admit, I'd hoped for him to leave the military — but he is not ready to, and as long as he still fulfils his duties as prince, that is his choice to make. I want him to be happy." Her expression turns wry. "I shall simply have to hope that no extreme world crises occur to unduly endanger him."

"Iroh's very capable," he assures her. "It'll take more than a crisis to bring him down."

"I know he is. I trust him to look after himself. But as his mother, I will always worry."

"I'll look out for him," he promises. "As much as I can."

Izumi smiles. "I appreciate that, Mako. I'm glad Iroh has a friend like you."

They then return to the campfire, where Zuko's reminiscence has segued into the births of Team Avatar's children.

"For a time, it seemed that every other year one or more of us were having a kid," the old lord says jovially. "To no one's surprise, Aang and Katara were the first to become parents. Bumi was born…oh, in 110, I think. Ty Lee had Kairo a year later, and then Kya came along a year or two after that. I remember being grateful that Katara had already had two children by the time Mai got pregnant, because it meant she could answer every single question we had and then some. She helped us a lot when Izumi was born." Zuko's face darkens slightly.

Asami notices, and asks sympathetically, "Was it a bad time?"

"Well, not exactly." Zuko shifts in his chair, casting a glance at his daughter. "Izumi's birth was a difficult one. There were complications — I never cared to know the details — but I could have lost both wife and daughter." The shadow on his face lifts. "Thankfully, Katara was already a world-class healer, even then. She stayed with us for a few months with Kya while Mai recovered. Ty Lee helped too. But because of what happened, we — Mai and I — decided not to have any more children."

"Okay," Korra says after a beat, "since we're on this topic, I have to know — is Tenzin or Lin older?"

"My money's on Lin," he interjects in a stage whisper.

Zuko laughs. "Good bet. Lin was born the year before Tenzin. While they were dating, Aang used to joke that Tenzin had 'inherited his taste for older women'. Toph was not amused."

Amid the laughter that evokes, Korra comments, "Well, you definitely tell better stories than Toph."

"Oh, Toph is terrible at telling stories," Zuko chuckles.

"Right?!"

"What about Sokka and Suki?" Bolin wonders eagerly. "They got married, right? Didn't they ever have children?"

A hush falls over the older members of the group, and the mood abruptly shifts from merriment to something more sombre.

He shoots a look at Iroh, eyebrows raised; but Iroh shrugs helplessly. Whatever history Bolin has inadvertently stirred up is as unknown to the Fire Prince as the rest of them.

Zuko sighs heavily. "Sokka and Suki married the latest out of all of us. Because of their different responsibilities, they spent much of the first years after the war apart. Suki was here, guarding me with her band of Kyoshi Warriors; and Sokka was busy rebuilding the Southern Water Tribe and then helping with the administration for the United Republic. It wasn't until Suki retired from active duty that they finally got married. By then, Sokka was 36, and Suki was 35."

He frowned; he'd been expecting later ages, based on the absence of children. "That's…still fairly young. Did they not want kids?"

"Oh, no, they did." Zuko's smile is sad. "Sokka loved playing with all our kids, and he always spoke about how when he and Suki finally settled down, they would have three. 'One girl, one boy, and one just because,' he used to say. Because they married so late, they started trying almost right away — and they were lucky enough to conceive quickly. Their son was born the following year."

No one says a word; they're all listening for the tragedy they know is coming.

"When the child was two, Sokka and Suki brought him to the Fire Nation for a visit. Izumi was about eight then, Kairo was twelve — they helped to babysit him while we adults caught up. This was in 123 AG."

The last sentence is said with a meaningful glance towards Iroh, who swears quietly under his breath. "The Kemurikage Resurgence."

"The what now?" Korra questions in confusion.

"It's an old Fire Nation legend," Mai Lee explains. "The Kemurikage are spirits of ancient mothers whose children were abducted by a warlord. The Kemurikage haunted the warlord's camp and stole children, and they continued doing this to other warlords and other camps until the unification of the Fire Islands. Nowadays, the legend is told to children as a cautionary tale; the story goes that kids who misbehave will be kidnapped by the Kemurikage."

"Azula once gathered a group of women to impersonate the Kemurikage and kidnap children from the capital," adds Zuko. "It was one of her many schemes to manipulate my reign. When a similar situation began unfolding in 123, I thought it was Azula again, though it'd been several years since we'd heard from her."

"What, so…kids were going missing again?" He looks to Iroh, who nods in confirmation. The connection clicks in his mind. "Let me guess — Sokka and Suki's son was one of the missing kids."

"Yes." Zuko's brow creases. "He was taken from right within the palace grounds. Izumi was with him, and it's a wonder she wasn't taken too."

All eyes turn to Izumi, who looks unperturbed save for the slight tightening around her eyes as she recalls the long-ago trauma. "I don't remember what I did. All I know is that I made it too troublesome for the kidnappers to try to take me."

Kairo pats her hand comfortingly, his expression solemn.

"I confronted Azula," Zuko continues, "but she insisted she wasn't involved with the Kemurikage resurgence. I still don't know whether I entirely believe that, but we didn't have time to dither. By this time, a good twenty children had been taken, and rumour reached us that they were going to be shipped out of the Fire Nation. Sokka, Suki, Mai, and I tracked the kidnappers east, to the outermost islands. We finally found them with a whole group of kidnapped children, waiting at the harbour for a ship to leave the country." His golden eyes seem to dim. "But not all the twenty children were there; five had gotten lost on the journey east — including Sokka and Suki's boy."

Asami's hand is at her mouth. "Did they ever find him?"

Zuko shakes his head regretfully. "No."

There is absolute silence around the campfire. This is a tale the younger generation have never heard, and it is heartbreaking to learn that two of the heroes of the Hundred Year War suffered such a tragic loss.

He knows what it's like to lose parents; he can only imagine that it must be worse for parents to lose a child.

"We commissioned an artist," says Zuko. "I had the posters distributed all across the country. But we never found that little boy. I always wonder, if we'd had photographs back then, whether…" He exhales sadly. "It scarred Sokka and Suki for life. And to make matters worse, they weren't able to have other children. Suki died ten years after the Kemurikage Resurgence, still grieving her son. And when the Red Lotus tried to kidnap you, Korra —" Zuko nods at her. "— this was the reason Sokka fought so hard to get you back. Your father was fighting for his daughter, Tenzin for his father's legacy, and I was fighting for the Avatar — but Sokka was fighting in the memory of his son. He refused to let your parents suffer like he and Suki had. And he gave his life to make sure they wouldn't lose you the way he'd lost his child."

There is a deep-seated grief etched in Zuko's face, and it tugs painfully at his heart. Korra hugs his arm. Bolin looks stricken, Iroh and Mai Lee are grave, Asami has tears in her eyes.

"That's really sad," Bolin remarks dolefully.

"I can't believe they never found him," Mai Lee laments. "Even with all the resources at Grandfather's disposal."

"Yes," Izumi states grimly. "You would think that a brown-skinned, blue-eyed boy in the Fire Nation would stand out." Her tone turns scathing. "But apparently, people were more concerned with the other four children who were missing, because they were Fire National children."

He stiffens. Brown-skinned, blue-eyed, lost at two years old…wait a damn minute…

"It's been decades since I've thought of this," Zuko muses. "Agni, I can't even remember the boy's name."

It can't possibly be…

Kairo's deep, serious voice responds, "I remember. His name was Haruko. It was the only word he could say, but he babbled it all the time trying to talk to me."

For the love of Agni, you have to be kidding me! His gaze snaps to Iroh's across the campfire and he sees that the slack-jawed prince has come to the same startling conclusion.

Asami's eyes narrow. "Isn't Zoya's father's name Haruko?" she asks him.

He swallows as three pairs of golden eyes dart to him. "Yeah."

"Who?" asks Kairo.

"Grandfather," Iroh speaks up, drawing the elders' attention as comprehension dawns on Mai Lee, "I think Mako may know exactly where to find Chief Sokka and Lady Suki's son."

Pure and utter shock shows on Zuko's face as he swivels back to him. "You know Haruko?"

"How can you be sure it's the same Haruko?" Izumi questions sharply.

He is a detective, and he likes to think he's a good one. He's also the only one at this campfire who has ever met Haruko. While there is no way to prove conclusively that Zoya's father is indeed Sokka and Suki's lost son, there are way too many coincidences for them not to be one and the same.

"I'm pretty sure," he confirms.

His parents were murdered. He and his brother grew up on the streets, joined a gang, then became pro-benders. Then they met Korra and Asami and helped save the world multiple times. He dated Asami, broke up with her, dated Korra, broke up with her, witnessed a world-ending battle between ancient spirits, and saw the return of the Air Nation. He's fought triads, Equalists, bloodbenders, scarily competent bending terrorists, and a giant mecha.

He found his father's family by stumbling into a random fruit stand. His mother turned out to be Fire Nation nobility. His exes dated each other, then broke up. He dated someone else, then broke up. His best friend is the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation. He's met living legends like Master Katara and Lord Zuko. He works under the daughter of Toph Beifong. He got back together with Korra…somehow.

Just yesterday, he had coincidentally ended up in a soufflé line with all three of his former girlfriends. His first ex-girlfriend is the CEO of the leading tech company in Republic City. His second (and current) girlfriend is the Avatar.

And now his third ex-girlfriend turns out to be Sokka and Suki's granddaughter?

It's official: his life is crazy.

A/N: Lyric from 'Fields of Gold' by Sting. The theme word 'West' is a reference to all the discoveries in the Fire Nation.

I apologise for putting Sokka and Suki through that tragedy, but it's one explanation for why we never hear anything (or hardly anything) about Sokka, Suki, or their kids when the children of literally every other member of the Gaang are involved in TLOK. And yes, I have known exactly who Zoya is from the moment I introduced her.

Here are my headcanon birth years for each of the Gaang's kids:

Bumi - 110 AG
Kairo - 111 AG
Kya - 113 AG
Izumi - 115 AG
Lin - 118 AG
Tenzin - 119 AG
Haruko - 121 AG
Suyin - 124 AG

I look forward to your reactions in your reviews!